6.0 Powerstroke Problems Solved

share

6.0 Powerstroke Problems Solved

The following is a diesel performance experts answer to the 6.0 Powerstroke problems solved. He received a contact form from a diesel performance enthusiast who expressed his concerns with the 6.0 Powerstroke. Check out the answer….

That truck you have is a great machine and is one of the best designs that Ford and International ever rolled off their assembly line.

The nightmares you hear about the 6.0 Powerstroke seem to be the norm simply because there were so many of those trucks produced. From 2002-2006 over 2,000,000 6.0L Powerstrokes were manufactured. So that’s a lot of trucks for people to improperly maintenance. That right there is the number one reason we have to do what we do here at Lead Foot Diesel Performance.

Our specialty is making the 6.0L engine reliable and fixing all of the known failures with that platform. The number one reason people have problems with these engines is because they never change the coolant. Over time the coolant additives begin to separate and those additives become crystallized. These crystals clog up the little tiny passages in the oil cooler and that starts pressurizing the entire cooling system, eventually wiping out the cylinder head gaskets.

There are other little things that fail in the 6.0 like the STC bracket and the dummy rail plugs. We upgrade the STC bracket and the dummy rail plugs when we do our head gasket package deal. The stock dummy rail plugs use two rubber O rings that fail because they are under extreme pressure as well as heat. The upgraded ones we use have two polyurethane O rings above and below the rubber O rings which keeps them from failing.

We also upgrade the factory 8 row oil cooler to the 11 row oil cooler and I’m sure you have heard about the EGR cooler problems. This is also caused by running the coolant too long. We replace the EGR cooler as part of our package deal.

We do not use factory head bolts though. We install ARP Race proven head studs that are designed to handle massive cylinder pressures without allowing the head gasket to blow again in the future.

Even with all of these upgraded parts in place we take it a step further and we have all of our cylinder heads machined perfectly flat, polished and O ringed. The O rings are machined into the head around the cylinder opening where the factory gaskets usually blow out, they protrude about .007″ and this puts double the clamping force on the gasket around the cylinder opening where most pressure is created, to ensure the head gaskets will never fail again prematurely. This package deal is based off one of our sled pulling/drag racing trucks that we built. That truck has been making over 800 horse power with compound turbos and a lot of nitrous and is daily driven as well as used in competition for over 4 years now.

There are other things we recommend upgrading but those upgrades are totally up to you.

We also include an SCT tuner to help increase fuel economy as most of our customers are after that as well as reliability.

Some things not included in our package deal that you may want to think about upgrading:

The factory water pump uses a very brittle plastic impeller and they are prone to cracking. If the impeller cracks and is no longer circulating coolant through the engine it will overheat and you can potentially crack the cylinder heads we just spent so much time and money trying to improve.

We offer an aftermarket water pump that uses a billet impeller that you won’t have to worry about.

The factory low pressure fuel pumps fail quite often, we can keep replacing them every couple of years with stock pumps or you can opt to go with an upgraded aftermarket fuel system. We use the FASS fuel systems on all of our personal trucks here and they come with a lifetime warranty and move twice the volume of fuel as the factory lift pump.

This is going to help with several issues but mainly protects your injectors from possible starvation resulting in failure and gets rid of the messy factory fuel filter located on the frame rail.

The factory exhaust is very restrictive and doesn’t flow well. Reducing back pressure on the engine is one of the best things you can do on any vehicle with a turbo charger. Unlike naturally aspirated vehicles, diesel engines equipped with turbo chargers require no back pressure. Back pressure is bad for turbos.

The factory air intake does an excellent job filtering air. The 6.0 powerstroke loves air, so the more we can get in there the better. The stock air filter only pulls air from one surface area, an aftermarket air filter is pulling air from a 360° surface area. The filters are also a lifetime filter that never needs to be replaced, all you have to do is clean it. All air intake are not created equal, we have learned that hard way which ones work and which ones don’t work, we aren’t just parts slingers, you will only find the best air intakes on our website. We run these air intakes on our personal trucks.

Please let me know if you have any further questions about this topic. Ultimately I want to you be educated on your truck so you don’t have to be scared of it. You can email me vinny@leadfootdiesel.com or call us at the shop 770-267-0773

Follow Us

All information on ReviewDieselParts.com is for informational purposes only. We recommend visitors do their research and always work with a credible diesel shop which employs certified diesel techs. By using this site you agree to hold harmless ReviewDieselParts.com and any of its affiliates. You also agree to release ReviewDieselParts.com from any liability pertaining to the use of information obtained from this website.